LOC possibility

Ryan and I are going to Washington, DC in May. Just the two of us, which is exciting enough as it is :) Cade gets to go stay with Nana and Papa at his first Nana and Papa Camp. I think they're as excited to keep Cade as we are to get to go somewhere without him...so it works out for everyone involved.

We've been to DC before. When Ryan's cousin graduated from the Naval Academy a couple of years ago, we went to see him graduate and also took a quick day trip into DC. If you've ever been there, you know there's no possible way to see even a fraction of what's there in that amount of time. But we did get to see some things, so that was cool. One of the things we did do was go to the Library of Congress. They were doing some construction, but it was open. There's what I refer to as the "outer" part, where it's kind of like a museum with displays and audio tours and such. We walked around that part. LAME.

I want to go into where the BOOKS are. Hello, it's a library. Aren't BOOKS what makes it a library? (Book are actually only part of what makes something a library. The information stored there is what actually makes it a library. I know. Total nerd.) The part where the books are is not accessible to the public. You can peek in a little window and see them, but apparently you have to have special permission (like as in, you're doing super-important research) to go into where the books are. You know where this is going...

Last time we were there, I actually walked all over the place trying to figure out how to sneak in. I definitely ended up in some places where I was not supposed to be, but alas, never in the library part. This time, I called our wonderful United States Representative, because his helpful website says that he can schedule tours of several places in DC for his constituents. The LOC is one of them. So I call and talk to his friendly little secretary girl. She's going to try to set up a tour of the White House and the Capitol for us. She's also going to try to set up a tour of the LOC for us. I explained to her that I have a master's degree in library science and I've seen the outer part of the LOC where the normal tours are, but it's very important to me to get to see the actual library part. She said she would try her best. I then added that if I can only do one of the three things I asked her for, the Library of Congress is the one I want. She said she understood. (Ryan may not be super-happy about that because I think he really wants to tour the White House if we can, but oh, well :)

(Side note: did you know that you have to give your full name, birthdate, and social security number to even be CONSIDERED for a tour of the White House? They run a full background check on everyone who asks to go on a tour. Holy cow.)

I'm excited. Now I know that this lovely girl (her name is Lauren) may not be able to deliver and I may end up disappointed. But it's exciting that she said she can try! And she was only my first phone call...I was prepared to write a letter to the President, and I may still. He hasn't done a whole heckuva lot for me. Getting me into to the LOC would go a long way in helping my opinion of him. I might even vote for him next time if he can pull that off. Hmmm...